Facebook reaffirms pledge to fight ‘bad content’ on the site

A Facebook executive has reaffirmed the social network’s pledge to remove “bad content” from the site.

The company’s chief product officer Chris Cox told the firm’s Communities Summit in London that Facebook was keen to answer criticism aimed at its impact on society.

Facebook was among the social media giants to appear before a special session of a House of Commons committee in Washington DC on Thursday as part of a parliamentary inquiry into fake news.

“2017 was a really tough year for Facebook, for social media and for the internet. We faced tough questions about our role in democracy, our role in public discourse, our role in journalism and our role in well-being,” Mr Cox told the summit.

“And we take these questions incredibly seriously. We’re coming this year to do two things. The first is to remove bad content from our platform.

Facebook launched a Community Leadership Program (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

“To do that we have our best teams internally, partnered with world experts externally, working through each of the categories and issues, to make sure we can ensure that Facebook is a safe place for everyone.

“And the second thing we’re doing is to accentuate all the good things that are happening.”

Mr Cox also reaffirmed a Facebook pledge to double its content review team to 20,000 staff, who monitor and remove bad content from the site.

The Facebook executive was at the summit to announce a range of new tools and investment to help foster community on the platform through its groups.

The social media giant has launched a Community Leadership Program, which the firm said will invest in and support community leaders, five of which will be selected to receive a one million dollar fund as well as receive training and guidance from Facebook.

New tools for Facebook Group administrators were also announced, including a new streamlined section of the app to manage group organisation and membership.

A new Group Announcements feature was also revealed, which will enable admins to place special announcements at the top of a group’s page, while a new section to lay out specific group rules is also being introduced.

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